The New and Improved Uptime.com Transaction Check Tool

The Uptime.com Transaction Check tool is evolving. It’s designed to mimic user interactions, and can interact with nearly every element on your website.

The Transaction Check is an important monitor for those worried about conversions or signup forms. It can measure landing pages, shopping carts, and other interactive elements, mimicking the customer experience and providing important metrics about response time and errors along the way.

Our updated support article for the Transaction Check provides all the information you need to implement this powerful feature. We walk you through the basics, show off a live use case, then break down the nuances of creating your first check.

Today, we want to talk about some of the new capabilities we’ve added, and provide helpful tips and tricks to find selectors or ID’s to add to your steps.

Improvements and New Capabilities

Here are some of the improvements and new capabilities that have been added to the Uptime.com Transaction Check.

Chrome Versions

The Transaction Check now supports the latest Chrome version and frameworks such as React.js, Angular.js, Vue.js and so forth.

Improved Root Cause Analysis

Once a test is deployed, use Root Cause Analysis (available via Reports>Alerts) for further insights. With Root Cause Analysis, you can review a screenshot of what Uptime.com encountered, along with technical data about the servers reporting failure and which step triggered the alert.

Selecting Elements for Your Transaction Check

Most commands or validators require an ID, Name or CSS Selector, which you created when you developed your site. Your browser’s developer tools allow you to find the information you need to set up your check.

Inspect Elements

These instructions apply to both Chrome and Firefox. Instructions for Safari are located here. To enable the Inspector, press Ctrl+Shift+C/Cmd+Shift+C. This tool highlights elements of a webpage, and then points you to its name or ID within your site’s source code.

Alternatively, you may right-click on a specific element and click Inspect or Inspect Element depending on whether you are using Chrome or Firefox/Edge.

Once you’ve located your selector, right-click the highlighted portion of code and click Copy Selector from the Copy submenu. You can paste the value you obtain into the Transaction Check script editor.

Auto Complete

Let’s say you have two selectors that are similar in name, and you can’t figure out which one you need to monitor for. Uptime.com can help.

Create your first Transaction Check step and instruct Uptime.com to visit the URL you want to start with. In addition to measuring response time, Uptime.com will now identify any element you want as you type.

Neat!

Remember, you need to have the Transaction Check tool visit every URL required to complete the transaction to enable this feature. Otherwise, only the selectors from the first URL in your Transaction Check will be viewable.

Using the Transaction Check

The Transaction Check tool is limited only to your thought process, so consider what you want to test for. In our Use Case example, we discuss how to measure a call to action that is present on our home page. Check it out for some inspiration.

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Richard Bashara is Uptime.com's lead content marketer, working on technical documentation, blog management, content editing and writing. His focus is on building engagement and community among Uptime.com users. Richard brings almost a decade of experience in technology, blogging, and project management to help Uptime.com remain the industry leading monitoring solution for both SMBs and enterprise brands. He resides in California, enjoys collecting and restoring arcade machines, and photography.